Paid firefighters walked off the job for an hour on Friday amid stalled negotiations with their employer Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ).
It follows a FENZ pay offer in June of 5.1 percent over three years, which was declined by the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU).
"Back in 2022 we fought for better conditions and various other things," Woolston senior firefighter Kevin Crozier said from the picket line today. "Since that time, very little has changed."
The union said members had not had a pay increase since July 2023.
"NZPFU members are fed up with the lack of progress and hope that the strike notice will motivate FENZ to come to the table next week with a revised position that deals with all outstanding issues including wages," it said earlier this month.
"The state of the fire appliances is dire and failing, leaving firefighters stranded on the way to calls, at station or even at the incident without water while internal firefighting," NZPFU said.
"The lack of staff, working excessive overtime, the dire state of appliances are all factors in the level and intensity of mental health issues for our members."
NZPFU said FENZ continued to fail firefighters with occupational cancer and had "been criticised in ACC reviews for not applying the law".
Union national secretary Joanne Watson said striking was a last resort.
"We feel like we're an inconvenience to the organisation," Woolston station officer Alan Skilton said. "We feel like there's not enough emphasis towards frontline operations - particularly in our fleet and our staffing."
Skilton said issues with fleet pumps failing, trucks breaking down and intercoolers bursting are common themes for the trucks running at the moment.
"Spreydon firestation, I think they're on their 10th or 12th intercooler. They keep bursting, which of course then we have to take that truck out of commission, it has to be repaired," he said.
"We feel like we're always fighting and begging and asking and it just feels like we keep getting put up with resistance when we feel operations should be supported better."
"We aren't asking for much," Crozier said. "We're just asking for them to be a good employer."
FENZ said it received calls for three vehicles crashes while firefighters were striking, with volunteers responding to callouts over that time.
But its deputy national commander Megan Stiffler says the union is putting the public at risk.
"Of course they are. Fire and Emergency has a network of response right across the nation. As soon as a large portion of that network is offline, of course there will be delays.
"We want the firefighters to know that there is no need to put the public safety at risk."
But the union said one of Auckland's busiest volunteer trucks had a total pump failure minutes before the strike, and said FENZ is gambling with safety.
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Photo: RNZ/Louis Dunham
